Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers: Call for Proposals
Puppet Showplace’s Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers seeks to diversify representation on our stage and in our field by investing in creative research and early-stage production development by Black puppeteers from Greater Boston and from across the country.
Applications for the 2026 Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers are now open!
Sign up to receive updates about the program here.
Learn about the 2025 cohort here →
About the Program
Puppet Showplace Theater seeks proposals from emerging, early-career, and experienced artists interested in exploring the art of puppetry, for the sixth year of this residency program!
Puppet Showplace Theater is offering five $1,000 grants to Black artists to support the research and development of original puppetry work. Starting in January 2026, this year’s residency will include:
Monthly group gatherings over Zoom (Second Tuesday of each Month), to discuss work and collectively assist with progress.
Guest seminars, geared toward the group’s needs.
Individual work sessions with Project Mentor Marcella Murray.
Additional support from Tanya Nixon-Silberg, returning as Community Curator.
Creative feedback from the Artistic Team of Puppet Showplace Theater
Together, our team will facilitate community-building among members of the cohort to create a supportive environment, where works-in-progress are shared.
The Residency will conclude in June 2026 with an in-person showcase performance, in Boston.
Proposed Projects
Projects may be at any stage of development and incorporate any form of puppetry. They may be geared toward adult, child, family, student, or other community-based audiences. Projects may be intended for a variety of presenting contexts; including traditional stages, classrooms, outdoor settings, video platforms, installation settings, parades, or protests.
Anthony Stokes puppeteers “Bawba” from his 2020 Creative Residency work on the short film, “Bawba Sheep’s Black”
Artists may approach any subject matter that they wish to explore through puppetry; including, but not limited to: history, politics, fantasy, memoir, folklore, traditions, contemporary issues, or even abstract explorations. Puppetry is a multidisciplinary form, so funds may be used for any purpose that advances the artist’s expression and process (e.g. the purchase of materials, research time, design work, building, devising, writing, rehearsing, or reflecting.)
“This program is about not finishing a thing. This is about the process.”
Selection Criteria
Leah Lara’s “Princess” hand puppet from their work “The Princess That Danced with the Wind”
The cohort will be chosen by a jury of puppetry and performance professionals. Our aim is to select a diverse array of projects and puppetry forms, with artists who will benefit from this residency program. We will evaluate:
The clarity, originality, and achievability of the project (even if part of a bigger whole).
The project’s potential to strengthen the artist’s practice and create much needed affinity spaces in and through puppetry.
The feasibility for the artist to engage in project-related development and residency activities during January - June 2026.
Family Artist: At least one grant award will be designated for the development of a family puppet show.
New England Artist: At least one grant award will be designated for an artist living or working in New England.
If you have questions or would like to discuss a proposal in advance of applying, please reach out to Ash Winkfield at ash@puppetshowplace.org.
Artists from across the US are encouraged to apply.
| Timeline |
|---|
| October 14, 2025 | Applications Open |
| November 9, 2025 | Applications Close |
| December 2025 | Selected participants will be notified. |
| January 28, 2026 | 1st Community Cohort Gathering on Zoom |
| February 25, 2026 | 2nd Community Cohort Gathering on Zoom |
| March 25, 2026 | 3rd Community Cohort Gathering on Zoom |
| Early April 2026 | Mid-Program Sharing on Zoom |
| April 22, 2026 | 4th Community Cohort Gathering on Zoom |
| May 27, 2026 | 5th Community Cohort Gathering on Zoom |
| June 24, 2026 | 6th Community Cohort Gathering on Zoom |
| Weekend of June 12-14, 2026 | Culminating Showcase in Boston (in-person performance) |
Apply for the Residency
Apply by November 9
To apply, use our Google Form (also linked below.) To view the application questions in advance, you may download a pdf of the questions or make a copy of this Google Doc version.
Apply by Video
If you prefer, you may submit a video of yourself answering the questions instead of a written statement. If you choose this option, please notify Ash at ash@puppetshowplace.org and upload the video to this dropbox.
Meet the Team
Marcella Murray
Project Mentor
Marcella Murray (she/her) is a New York-based theater artist from Augusta, Georgia. She is a playwright, performer, collaborator, and puppeteer. Murray’s work is heavily inspired by the observed ways in which people tend to segregate and reconnect. Her work tends to focus on themes of identity within a community and (hopefully) forward momentum in the face of trauma.
Performances include The Slow Room, a piece directed by Annie Dorsen at Performance Space New York; a workshop of Ocean Filibuster which was co-created by the team Pearl D’Amour (Lisa D’Amour and Katie Pearl) with composer Sxip Shirey at Abrons Arts Center; the work-in-progress I Don’t Want to Interrupt You Guys, created in collaboration with Leonie Bell and Hyung Seok Jeon during RAP at Mabou Mines; and Shoot Don’t Talk at St. Ann’s Warehouse/Puppet Lab created by Andrew Murdock; Our Bodies Like Dams by Sarah Finn at Mabou Mines; workshop reading of Loom Troll by Karin Keithley Syers at New Dramatists; Rent Party created by Amina Henry and TheatreofWorks; SmithSchmidtSmith by Leonie Bell at The Brick; Fire in the Head by Christopher Myers with FIAF; and Other Atlantas created and performed by Marcella Murray at La MaMa.
Along with David Neumann, Murray recently co-created Distances Smaller Than This Are Not Confirmed (Obie Special Citation for Creation and Performance) which opened at Abrons Arts Center in January of 2020, and Primer for an Impossible Conversation, a digital theater piece which premiered in 2021 at MCA Chicago. They are currently developing a third piece with the support of UNC Chapel Hill's Center for Performing Arts. Murray is a co-curator of the Object Movement Puppetry Residency. In 2022, she was an Artist in Residence at LaMaMa ETC as well as a participant in the Experiments in Opera Writer’s Room. Murray is a guest professor of Theatre at Sarah Lawrence College.
Tanya Nixon-Silberg
Community Curator
Tanya Nixon-Silberg (she/her) is a Black mother, educator, artist, and radical dreamer. Her work informs the intersection of all these identities. Called a "translator", Tanya has the ability to distill concepts of racial justice to young children in ways that help them imagine and take back a world where with community, they have agency, and can take action for change and has been doing this work for over 7 years. Tanya’s life’s goal is to make sure that Black and Brown children recognize that racism is systemic; that educators not shy away from confronting systemic racism in the classroom and that engaging in this work collectively helps us to heal.
Ash Winkfield
Residency Coordinator
Ash Winkfield (xe/xem/xyr) is a multidisciplinary artist from Durham, NC, now based in New York. Ash specializes in new and devised works presented in New York (Jazz at Lincoln Center, Abrons Art Center, LaMama Experimental Theatre), North Carolina (Duke University) and internationally. Most recently, xe performed with Pinwheel Works’ The Magic Pearl, Basil Twist’s Book of Mountains and Seas, and Walk with Amal. Ash was a 2023 fellow of Puppet Showplace Theater’s Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers, and in November of that year joined the staff as Artistic Associate.
Fund this initiative
If you would like to help support future grantees, we welcome contributions to this initiative. You can donate by clicking the button, or mailing a check to Puppet Showplace Theater, 32 Station Street, Brookline, MA 02445 with “Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers” in the memo.
Our Mission
Puppet Showplace Theater is dedicated to presenting outstanding puppetry to diverse audiences through performances, workshops, and community outreach activities.
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Puppet Showplace Theater is supported by...
Puppet Showplace Theater is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts through the New England Arts Resilience Fund, part of the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations and the Mellon Foundation, with major funding from the federal CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan from the National Endowment for the Arts.